He explained to his hearers with gracious
acknowledgment that Church endowments had undoubtedly been most
beneficent in past times. He spoke in the interests of no special
creed. Whether in the so-called Popish days of Henry VIII and his
ancestors, or in the so-called Protestant days that had followed,
the state of society had required that spiritual teaching should be
supplied from funds fixed and devoted to the purpose. The increasing
intelligence and population of the country made this no longer
desirable,--or, if desirable, no longer possible. Could these
endowments be increased to meet the needs of the increasing millions?
Was it not the fact that even among members of the Church of England
they were altogether inefficient to supply the wants of our great
towns? Did the people of Tankerville believe that the clergymen of
London, of Liverpool, and of Manchester were paid by endowments? The
arguments which had been efficacious in Ireland must be efficacious
in England. He said this without reference to one creed or to
another.
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